In the development of beverage packaging, numerous attempts have been made to provide paperboard packaging for fluids, utilizing a plastic bag within the paperboard structure to hold the fluid. As these packages evolved to have dispensing spouts secured and extending from the paperboard packaging, many issues have been addressed, including the secure mounting of spouts and the design of spouts that were easy to use. It has also been desirable to make the inner pouches of these containers removable so that plastic and cardboard or paperboard material can be recycled separately after use. As the bag in box packaging has evolved, some packaging has been designed for the particular use of conveying hot or cold liquids and maintaining an appropriate serving temperature. For instance, a coffee shop or restaurant might utilize a paperboard and plastic bag in box style carton in lieu of a returnable thermos to allow customers to carry multiple servings of branded coffee for use at meetings at location remote from the retail shop dispensing the beverage. Similarly, a restaurant may provide soup in a paperboard and plastic bag in box container.
Most of these containers have provided a paperboard outer shell with an opening for a spout on a front vertical panel or forward directed angled panel. When the opening is on the front vertical panel, in order to fill the bag, the container is rested on its back. In these designs, a handle, if any, protrudes from the top of the paperboard box. Paperboard bag in boxes have been shipped to customers in three general fashions. In one fashion the box is shipped as a paperboard blank to be folded and assembled with the plastic bag at the retail location. In a second form, the components are shipped and the assembly requires the use of adhesives. In a third form, the bag is inserted into an assembled box which is collapsed and shipped to the retail location where it need only be expanded to its full size by unfolding. The use of unassembled paperboard blanks is not entirely satisfactory since retail establishment employees must be trained to the proper assembly of the box and bag structure. Heretofore, the collapsed assembled boxes have also suffered from shortcomings in that the handle structures have not been sturdy and the box must necessarily be placed in different orientations for filling, pouring, and resting positions. The need to use a variety of orientations for the box can make it impractical to fill the box with liquid to a point approaching the actual volume of the container. The use of a plastic carton or bottle in a pre-assembled box avoids some of the shortcomings, and although it does not provide the space saving features of using collapsed blanks and bags, it is economical and resolves many other operational difficulties.
Accordingly, it would be desirable to provide a new bottle in box structure to address one or more of these shortcomings to provide additional benefits to retailers and consumers.